Derick or Richard DUYTS

                   NOTE:
      Laurens Duyts, a Dane, born in Holstein in 1610, was the progenitor of one of the Dye families in America. He died January 14, and was buried on January 16, 1668 at the Dutch Reformed Church burial ground in Bergen (now Jersey City), New Jersey. He married first, about 1639. Ytie Jans, perhaps a sister of Gerrit Jansen of Oldenburg, Holstein, who was a sponsor for her daughter Margaret's baptism.   Further detail is found in PAF NOTES.


Ytie was still living in 1684. On November 25, 1658, she was sentenced to a whipping and banishment for living adultery with Jan Parcell. John Parcell, alias Botcher, of Huntingdonshire, Eng., for living in adultery with Ytie Jans, was to be placed at the whipping post with two rods in his arms, to be banished for 20 years, and pay a fine of 100 guilders with costs. In a petition submitted to the by John Parcell and Ytie Jans, "two sorrowful sinners", ask for pardon and "leave to marry ". The Council allowed then to remain three months to settle their affairs, "but must separate from each other at once." Official records become strangely silent at this point, but Jans must have found a way to marry Ytie, since a wife by that named survived him and was his widow in 1684. They provided a home for their children from previous marriages and at least two of their own. On June 13, 1674, Ytie was named as sponsor at the baptism of Catherine, daughter of son Hans. Jan Parcell died in 1677, his will proved on September 28 of that year. Ytie, along with stepsons John and Thomas Parcell, appear on the rate list of Newtown in 1683. In March 1684, she petitioned the Council concerning a dispute over lands near Gravesend. This is the last time the name appears in public records. His second wife was Grietje Jans, is said to be the sister of his first wife. The banns for this marriage were proclaimed for the first time on December 3, 1665. After three proclamations , Laurens and Greitje were married on January 1, 1666 in Bergen, New Jersey. Theirs was the first such ceremony of record at the Dutch church in this newly-formed settlement. Grietje survived her husband and testified in the New York court on January 18, 1668. Laurens Duyts arrived in America in July of 1639 on the "Fire of Troy" a private armed vessel , engaged at Hoorn, Holland by Captain Iochiem Pietersen Kuyter. Kuyter, a Danish gentleman , who was accompanied by his friend and countrymen, Jonas Bronck. All were perhaps fugitives from the Thirty Years' War, drawn to Holland first by the promise of freedom and opportunity. But, as conditions there became more unsettled and trade declined, they, along with a multitude of other expatriates, looked toward New Netherland which was extoled as "beyond the finest country in the world where everything can be produced that is grown in France or the Baltic" and whose young settlements were free from all tyranny and the corruption of European society. Kuyter shipped a large cargo of cattle aboard the ship, and he and Bronck were accompanied by their families and many herdsman, farmers and several laborers. This shipload must have made an impact of sorts on the community of New Amsterdam, which, at the time was estimated to have had a population of under one thousand. Kuyter immediately obtained a grant of about four hundred acres, bordering on the great Kill (Harlem River) from about the present 127th to 140th streets in New York City. Bronck settled directly opposite his friend's land on two hundred acres purchased from the Indians and now part of the borough of the Bronx. Laurens Duyts and Pieter Andriessen , also a passenger on the "Fire of Troy", leased portions of Bronck's land, July 21, 1639, for three years, for raising tobacco and maize, from the proceed of which they were reimburse Bronck the one hundred and twenty-one florins for their passag e, which he had originally paid . They were to clear and cultivate a fresh spot every two year